A Natural(ish) Parenting & Food Blog

For me? For free?

Sitting in my freezer for quite some time has been a box of Pepperidge Farm Puffy Pastry that Foodbuzz sent for review. I’ve been hanging onto it for so long because I haven’t been exactly sure what to do with it. It’s not whole grain, nor is it particularly nutritious. Not to say that I only eat nutritious things, but the thought of this puff pastry just didn’t thrill me the way, say, cake does. However, I hung onto the puff pastry because it is food and because I figured some fun use would arise. Lo and behold, it did! Just last week, I found myself craving calzones.

I thawed one of the puff pastry sheets, rolled it out on a floured cutting board, and used a plate and a pizza-cutter to get the right shape. I then loaded half of each calzone with a mixture of roasted broccoli, tomato paste (sauteed with onions, garlic, and Italian seasoning), and shredded Asiago cheese:

I folded the other half over and used a fork to pinch the pocket closed:

I ended up with a whole family of calzones! One giant, one slightly less giant, one a bit smaller, and one itty bitty baby:

I shredded a bit more Asiago over the top …

… and popped them in the oven for 15-20 minutes.

Meanwhile, I had a teeny bit more dough left, so I rolled it out as thin as I could and filled it with pumpkin pie filling (canned pumpkin, mashed banana, vanilla, and the holy trinity of spices):

The little pumpkin pie calzones went in the oven when these guys came out!

Here’s the whole spread, complete with leftover salad from my office party the night before:

(You can’t tell from the picture, but Erik has the giant calzones on a full-sized dinner plate; I took the smaller calzones on an appetizer plate!)

Mmmmmmm, crispy bread and cheese:

And crispy, gooey inside:

I was so excited to have found a delicious use for the puff pastry … and I still have one more sheet for future adventuring!

While we’re on the subject of free Foodbuzz loot, I came across this recipe for Hoisin-glazed Tempeh with Green Beans and Cashews in an issue of Vegetarian Times and got super excited because I had nearly every ingredient already thanks to the Tastemaker Program and product samples that I received directly from the food companies.

Of course, I ended up eating the finished product before I could photograph it, but please take my word that it was delicious!!! For once, I was excited to have so many condiments squeezed into my refrigerator door 😛

4 thoughts on “For me? For free?”

I like what you did with the puff pastry. I always forget that there’s fun to be done with it. Here is a link to this really good appetizer recipe my sister in law makes with the puff pastry. You can actually make up the rolls and store them in the freezer, then slice and bake when you need them: http://bit.ly/bPZs5H

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